COIMBATORE: As many as 49 people on board a TNSTC bus sustained injuries after it fell into a 20-foot-deep gorge on the Valparai road in the early hours of Sunday.
The incident occurred at Kavarkal, around 10 kilometres before Valparai town, at 3.10 am, after the driver lost control while navigating the bus at the 33rd hairpin bend.
The injured include the driver, R Ganesh, and the conductor, R Shivaraj. The bus which arrived from Tiruppur had around 70 passengers.
Police sources said the 49 injured were taken to government hospitals in Valparai. Subsequently, 22 of these passengers were referred to the Pollachi government hospital. The remaining passengers with minor injuries who received first aid and treatment were later discharged from the Valparai hospital.
Out of the 22 passengers at the Pollachi hospital, four were discharged and others are under treatment.
The bus driver, who was severely injured in the head, was admitted to the Coimbatore Medical College Hospital.
Tea estate workers in the area who were the first to know about the accident, alerted the police. Along with the locals, police and fire department personnel started rescuing passengers who were trapped in the bus. The rescued passengers were sent to the hospitals on government and private ambulances which arrived from Mudis, Sholayar, Stammore, Waterfalls areas," the sources added.
An officer from the Valparai branch of the Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation (TNSTC) told TNIE that the bus, which fell into the gorge, is operated from Valparai to Tiruppur regularly.
The bus had departed from the Tiruppur bus stand with 72 passengers at 1.30 pm.
"When the bus reached the 33rd hairpin bend in Kavarkal, the driver lost control of the vehicle and it slid into the gorge. The driver and conductor who sustained injuries are currently under treatment."
Valparai police are investigating into the accident.